Gym 'Regrets' Incident Involving Man With Disability

INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indianapolis gym said it regrets that two employees signed a man with a developmental disability to a pricey contract that his family said he couldn't understand.

Mark Hannon, who is 49 but functions at a much younger age, told his brothers that two men representing Bally Total Fitness came to his door two weeks ago and drove him to the Pike Plaza gym, where he signed a contract and agreed to have $29.99 withdrawn from his bank account every month, in addition to paying $69.98 upfront.

6News' Rafael Sanchez was asked to leave the property when he went to speak with the manager of the gym, Amir Nahandast, last week.

Phone calls to the company's corporate office also went unreturned until Wednesday, when Bally's issued a statement saying that they had canceled Hannon's membership and refunded his money.

"We regret that this incident occurred and have accordingly addressed the issue with the employees involved," spokesman Pete Marino said in the statement. "It is common practice that we market our clubs with free trial passes to the local community but it is against our corporate policy to transport anyone to or from our facility."

Noble of Indiana, an organization that works with people with disabilities, said it is happy with the resolution, but troubled that Bally's didn't take action after family members spoke with the club's management.

"I think the average human being has to use reasonable judgment and not take advantage of people like Mark when they come across these situations," said CEO Clint Bolser.

Hannon's brothers said they're also happy the issue has been dealt with, but said they still suspect the gym had questionable motives.

"In hard economic times, people will do anything to get a buck," Hannon's brother, Joe Hannon, told Sanchez. "We tried to get them to understand, but there was all this runaround, and that's what brought us to you."

As an industry, there are state rules that oversee how fitness centers and spas do business, limiting contracts to no longer than three years, for example. Customers also have three days to cancel any contract.